The Time for BIM is NOW

As a former VDC (virtual design and construction) Engineer, I was part of a team that was in charge of implementing and monitoring BIM (building information modeling) processes and new technologies. In the BIM world, we see all the D’s - 3D, 4D, 5D, and even 6D - and I’ve seen all of these attempt to be implemented, it’s what we call “Hollywood BIM,” what we in the industry refer to BIM that is flashy and impractical to set up and manage throughout the project. 

I have one memory of trying to leverage 4D - I spent the entire day creating a rich 4D model that was integrated with our P6 schedule coupled with logistics and to-scale cranes...it was elaborately setup and beautifully animated if I do say so myself, could have been a contender for “Best Picture” if the BIM Oscars existed. However, bubble burst when we had our first meeting with the superintendents, they couldn’t care less about the flashiness and beautifully animated model. They wanted the answers, they were just as capable as accomplishing the same objectives by taking a PDF of the plans, drawing boxes to symbolize the cranes, and making changes on the fly vs the hours it would have taken me. 

So what? This taught me to always start with the problem before you identify the technology. 

Flash forward to present day and as we were evaluating how to approach BIM within our product, we took a “problems first” approach when applying BIM workflows to product tracking. What I find unique about our approach is that we understand how problems actually get resolved in the field -- through Navisworks. Through viewpoints!

BIM engineers typically run meetings with trade partner detailers/coordinators to resolve clashes and constructability challenges to meet the requirements of design, which itself continues to evolve throughout the duration of the project. This involves running clash detection, saving viewpoints, and reuploading models for teams.

That’s where our Navisworks plugin comes in - we’ve taken our BIM integration to the next level, by creating a BIM coordinator’s sidekick. With the ability to quickly put out curated experiences of the federated model, we enable the entire BIM coordination team to compare against reality natively within Navisworks!

We strongly believe that this approach to BIM is the difference between someone who’s experienced the challenges in the field vs someone approaching BIM with the coolest parts about the technology first then trying to solve the problem. 

This is just the start of our work to bring BIM workflows to the field and tighten the communication between the field and office eliminating risk or cumbersome workflows. I couldn’t be more excited to see this update cross the finish line, if you’re currently taking advantage of our Navisworks plugin and want to learn more, join us on Wednesday, March 10th at 11am PST for a webinar (register here) where I’ll go into the nitty gritty of what our plugin has to offer.  

* Please reach out to your Account Executive or Customer Success Manager if you are interested in access to this plug-n